Paper short abstract:

This presentation is a case study on how a post-doctoral research fellowship program resulted into the creation of a research network in order to sustain the achievements. The mutual responsibilities of the north and south partners are highlighted.

Paper long abstract:

Research partnerships between the North and South have produced positive results in terms of scientific productivity, research quality, innovative capacity, capacity building and improvements in processes, services and products. However, there have been concerns on how these achievements can be sustained in the long term in the research sites and beyond.

This paper presents the experiences of how a Post-doctoral research fellowship program (The European Foundations Initiative against Neglected Tropical Diseases [EFINTD]) resulted in the creation of the African Research Network for Neglected Tropical diseases (ARNTD). The paper highlights answers to questions like: (i) What were the benefits of the EFINTD? (ii) How have these gains been translated into ARNTD? (iii) What are the challenges in sustaining these gains under the ARNTD?